Winning Team from Austin Goes to Space Camp!

This was a unique year for the winners of the Future City Competition: all 8 team members went to Space Camp! They could not be more thrilled about their experience, which was made possible by Bentley Systems. The students, Raunakk, Tiffany, Jonny, Hunter, Orion, Emma, Katelyn, and Dylan from West Ridge Middle School in Austin, TX, won first prize at the 2017 Future City Finals in Washington, D.C. in February. They attended US Space Camp in Huntsville, AL this summer as part of their grand prize.

The students enjoyed the different adventures they had during space camp, especially the missions. “Every day was a new adventure. I was an astronaut walking on the moon, in charge of the Endeavor mission in the command center, and I did some team training exercises like building objects blindfolded,” said Orion.

“We did space walks in microgravity chairs to fix solar panels on the spacecraft. I learned about rocketry, commercial spaceflight, types of spacesuits, heat shields, the history of spaceflight, and careers in aerospace technology. What I have learned in a classroom will never compare to what I learned in a week at Space Camp,” added Emma.

Beyond the activities and missions, the team got to learn about NASA history. “I learned about all the famous astronauts and their missions, the famous rockets, and I even got to see some of them in person which was really exciting!” said Tiffany.

Even though the students faced challenges at Space Camp, they got through them with team work (and lessons learned during Future City!). “During my time in mission control, we simulated launching and landing a spacecraft on Mars. I enjoyed working with my teammates to solve problems like those in Mission Control in the Johnson Houston Space Center,” said Katelyn.

Thanks to Bentley Systems, the students enjoyed a unique experience and had a great time together getting to experience how astronauts train and complete missions in space.